Medievalists.net » Sir Gawain and the Green Knight http://www.medievalists.net Where the Middle Ages Begin Sun, 06 Dec 2015 19:35:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.9 Courtesy and Politeness in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight http://www.medievalists.net/2015/10/08/courtesy-and-politeness-in-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/ http://www.medievalists.net/2015/10/08/courtesy-and-politeness-in-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2015 20:38:19 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=61670 A close reading of three selected passages of the Middle English alliterative romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight provides a detailed picture of fictional and fairy-tale manifestations of courtly and polite behaviour in Middle English, a period that imported many new terms of courtesy and politeness from French.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2015/10/08/courtesy-and-politeness-in-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/feed/ 0 Teaching Tolkien’s Translations of Medieval Literature: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Orfeo and Pearl http://www.medievalists.net/2015/09/12/teaching-tolkiens-translations-of-medieval-literature-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight-sir-orfeo-and-pearl/ http://www.medievalists.net/2015/09/12/teaching-tolkiens-translations-of-medieval-literature-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight-sir-orfeo-and-pearl/#comments Sun, 13 Sep 2015 04:53:32 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=61029 J.R.R. Tolkien, the medievalist who became the father of modern fantasy literature, translated many poems out of Old English, Old Norse and Middle English into carefully versified modern English

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2015/09/12/teaching-tolkiens-translations-of-medieval-literature-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight-sir-orfeo-and-pearl/feed/ 0 Fourteenth-Century Weaponry, Armour and Warfare in Chaucer and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight http://www.medievalists.net/2015/08/08/fourteenth-century-weaponry-armour-and-warfare-in-chaucer-and-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/ http://www.medievalists.net/2015/08/08/fourteenth-century-weaponry-armour-and-warfare-in-chaucer-and-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/#comments Sun, 09 Aug 2015 03:49:14 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=60258 This essay attempts to re-appraise selected passages of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from a wider military historical and archaeological perspective.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2015/08/08/fourteenth-century-weaponry-armour-and-warfare-in-chaucer-and-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/feed/ 0 The Strategy of Challenges: Two Beheading Games In Medieval Literature http://www.medievalists.net/2015/04/26/the-strategy-of-challenges-two-beheading-games-in-medieval-literature/ http://www.medievalists.net/2015/04/26/the-strategy-of-challenges-two-beheading-games-in-medieval-literature/#comments Sun, 26 Apr 2015 22:12:02 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=57884 The Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and its Old Irish ancestor The Feast of Bricriu recount a remarkable stranger's challenge to the hero, in effect, 'You can chop off my head if you'll let me return the blow.'

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2015/04/26/the-strategy-of-challenges-two-beheading-games-in-medieval-literature/feed/ 0 Roses are Red, Violets are Beowulf http://www.medievalists.net/2015/01/18/roses-red-violets-beowulf/ http://www.medievalists.net/2015/01/18/roses-red-violets-beowulf/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2015 03:12:39 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=55498 Let’s take five minutes to look at medieval alliterative poetry, using some of the most famous poems of the period.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2015/01/18/roses-red-violets-beowulf/feed/ 0 Crafting the witch: Gendering magic in medieval and early modern England http://www.medievalists.net/2014/11/02/crafting-witch-gendering-magic-medieval-early-modern-england/ http://www.medievalists.net/2014/11/02/crafting-witch-gendering-magic-medieval-early-modern-england/#comments Sun, 02 Nov 2014 19:01:47 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=53829 This project documents and analyzes the gendered transformation of magical figures occurring in Arthurian romance in England from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2014/11/02/crafting-witch-gendering-magic-medieval-early-modern-england/feed/ 0 Medieval Misogyny and Gawain’s Outburst against Women in “‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ http://www.medievalists.net/2014/08/12/medieval-misogyny-gawains-outburst-women-sir-gawain-green-knight/ http://www.medievalists.net/2014/08/12/medieval-misogyny-gawains-outburst-women-sir-gawain-green-knight/#comments Tue, 12 Aug 2014 12:08:06 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=51806 The view has been gaining ground of late that the Gawain of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a knight renowned as 'Pat fyne fader of nurture' (1. 919) and as 'so cortays and coynt' of his 'hetes' (1. I525), degenerates at the moment of leave-taking from the Green Knight, his erstwhile host, to the level of a churl capable of abusing the ladies of that knight's household (11.2411 -28).

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2014/08/12/medieval-misogyny-gawains-outburst-women-sir-gawain-green-knight/feed/ 0 A Kiss Is Just a Kiss: Heterosexuality and Its Consolations in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight http://www.medievalists.net/2014/08/05/kiss-just-kiss-heterosexuality-consolations-sir-gawain-green-knight/ http://www.medievalists.net/2014/08/05/kiss-just-kiss-heterosexuality-consolations-sir-gawain-green-knight/#comments Tue, 05 Aug 2014 15:39:44 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=51635 The famous line from that modern romance- "A kiss is just a kiss"- is the message the Gawain-poet gave his listeners six centuries ago.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2014/08/05/kiss-just-kiss-heterosexuality-consolations-sir-gawain-green-knight/feed/ 0 The Canterbury Tales as Framed Narratives http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/25/the-canterbury-tales-as-framed-narratives/ http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/25/the-canterbury-tales-as-framed-narratives/#comments Sat, 25 Jan 2014 11:08:00 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=46966 Although I think that the notion of modern art as organic must be qualified and questioned, there is a certain force and validity to Jordan's distinction between medieval and modern art. Modern art expects the parts to be somewhat subordinate to the whole. The dominant stress of New Criticism was on the organic nature of art.

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]]> http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/25/the-canterbury-tales-as-framed-narratives/feed/ 0 Towards A Poetics of Marvellous Spaces in Old and Middle English Narrative http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/01/towards-a-poetics-of-marvellous-spaces-in-old-and-middle-english-narrative/ http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/01/towards-a-poetics-of-marvellous-spaces-in-old-and-middle-english-narrative/#comments Wed, 01 Jan 2014 15:32:44 +0000 http://www.medievalists.net/?p=46239 I argue that the heart of this poetics of marvellous spaces is displacement. Their wonder and dread comes from boundaries that these places blur and cross, from the resistance of these places to being known or mapped, and from the deliberate distancing between these places and the home of their texts.

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